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DBCLARINET's Recent Blog Entries
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Thursday, February 25, 2010
That's about all I have. Ate pretty much according to plan, but was still hungry at the end of the day, so my apple and coconut cream became an apple and peanut butter. I know, peanut butter isn't paleo or primal, but there's worse I can do. I also had two samoas for dessert. I almost had four samoas, but then something compelled me to exchange the samoas for the apple and peanut butter, and I think that's a fair trade deserving of a smiley face.
Calories are still low, working out is still high, and the extra carb weight is coming off. I'm starting to see my muscles again, and I really appreciate that! It's like, right, when I can see my muscles working when I'm lifting weights in the gym, that's awesome!
I've been a little more tired than usual this week, but I think it's just the combination of a low-calorie diet and high-intensity workouts. I will stay the course, though. Hubby and I have two free tickets to Studio Movie Grill, and while we will treat ourselves to some food there, we're planning on making it a good split-meal, split-dessert event. I do still want to be able to practice moderation!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
I think my body wants more vegetables these days, so this grocery trip, I obliged. I'm kind of excited for the food I made. Tomorrow's breakfast is a portabella mushroom head with an egg baked in it and topped with salsa. Lunch is a salad with red and green leaf lettuce, some turkey breast, radishes, cucumbers, avocado, and some horseradish. Packed a baggie of green pepper strips for a snack (with that much veggie, I know I'm going to get hungry!). Apples with coconut cream for dessert (unless I decide to have some Girl Scout cookies instead).
But dinner is where things got exciting. I was actually inspired enough that I made two big batches of dinner when I got home. Hubby was at racquetball, so it at least gave me something to do. I probably should have been practicing my clarinet, but oh well.
So first, I was going to make chili. Actually, I did make chili. It was going to be beefy, peppery, and tomato-y, but then I saw some unused tomatillos still sitting on the counter from hubby's salsa-making fiesta and decided to make my chili an hommage to all things green. I think they call it green chili, LOL. So I have a pot of chili with grass-fed ground beef (it was on sale at the grocery today, woo-hoo!), some random Anaheim-like chile pepper, four jalapenos, and some beef broth. I bought a spaghetti squash to put the chili on top of. That's got to be one of my favorite dishes. And the chili is dense enough that it really makes 8 servings. So freeze some for plenty of leftovers!
I also made a beef curry with some on-sale lean stew meat. This is where I get really excited because, for the first time in my life, I used a rutabaga! I can't even remember where I heard that it was a good sub for a potato (possibly on the root vegetable discussion?), but I bought one, peeled it, steamed it, and then used it in curry. My oil of choice was coconut oil, just a tablespoon for the whole dish, and then I cooked up chunks of rutabaga with small portabella mushrooms, mixed in some lean stew beef, added a can of tomatoes and some coconut cream, and then just dumped in a ton of curry and ginger. I actually can't wait to eat it. My recipe made 4 servings, so another set of good leftovers.
Finally, I bought some bone-in chicken breast and some eggplant. We saw an episode of Giada di Laurentiis's at-home show, and I love her ideas even if she is a pasta addict. One recipe was for pesto eggplant pasta. I figured, the sauteed eggplant and pesto sounds like a really good idea, so why not just make that as a side dish for some pesto chicken? Maybe I can grate some good parmesan cheese on top of the chicken and serve both up with some pesto. I'm excited for the idea. I just didn't cook it tonight because it's not a batch meal.
I calculated all that food in my nutrition tracker, and it definitely cuts back on my calories. I'm hoping I'll feel full and satiated even with the lower calories. We'll see!
Friday, February 19, 2010
Ugh, I got the line this morning. It's just one worker at the UNT rec center, but she's seemingly obsessed with telling the shoeless exercisers that they need to wear shoes. One girl got the shoe speech running on the indoor track -- and apparently she was the only person on the track! I got the shoe speech jumping rope on the basketball court. Oh, and I was the only person on the basketball court.
FWIW, jumping rope barefoot on the basketball court is a REALLY bad idea. Unless you have a mat (which I did not). I can't even begin to describe the blisters that formed on the bottoms of my toes (nor would you want me to). I simply can't wait for my Vibrams.
I am intermittent fasting again today because hubby and I decided to go on a date to Olive Garden. A primal nightmare, I know. But we saw the commercial for those cheese-stuffed pansotti, and hubby really wants to try them. So we made a deal -- we will go and split a plate of pansotti and a plate of tiramisu so that even though the food is bad for us, we are not individually downing the full 1300-calorie dish. And we're not breaking our wallet, either!
Working out in the morning again has felt fabulous! I lifted weights on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and today; I jumped rope on Tuesday and today; and I did sprints on the recumbent bike yesterday. I read an article geared at toning up and burning fat that was geared at women, and the trainer said that, contrary to conventional wisdom, for some reason the women who did intervals on the recumbent bike burned more fat proportionately in their legs and thighs than women who did intervals by any other method. Even he admitted that it flies in the face of everything we know to be true, there's no solid evidence to back it up. and it's a completely observation-based recommendation, but I figure intervals are intervals, so why not try it for a while and see what happens? I like using stationary bikes (or real bikes -- even better!) anyway, so what do I have to lose?
Calories are much lower this week, exercise is up, and yet I'm not very hungry. I figure my body must still be recovering both from my weight gain for the military audition and my complete binge this past weekend. I'm also not sure if I've gained muscle yet, but I know I'm fitting back into my clothes nicely (no more muffin top!), so I'm not very worried about it.
This weekend, or maybe next week, I will increase my calories a bit and see if that kick-starts my body. But again, not too worried about it. This is great!
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Okay, the three-day binge was fun and all, but I'm excited to be back on track. My husband and I have this system where we give ourselves a smiley face on a calendar each day that we stick to our diet goals: me eating primally, him practicing moderation. He's honest about when he overdid it on the faculty lounge donuts or the Oreos someone brought in for a snack.
Then I got to thinking, I feel like I'm cheating when I give myself a smiley face for sticking to my "diet." It doesn't feel like a "diet" anymore, it's just a way of life. Yeah, I plan out what I eat, but it's not hard, it doesn't take much thought anymore, and I have an arsenal of things to go to and delicious meals that don't feel like work at all. So do I really deserve a smiley face for going back to life as usual?
Even working out, I just felt like I was finally back in the groove. Yesterday I lifted heavy weights for 20 minutes, all lower body, then today I did some upper body work for 20 minutes and finished with 20 minutes of jump rope. I felt good and felt like I was finally "back." Like I'd gone on some vacation or something and now I was just back into my normal routine. So... diet and exercise are finally just a part of daily life? Does that really earn a smiley face?
I guess that means it's time for some new healthy habits. Yeah, my goal is to stick with my diet and exercise plan for the week, but I'm also going to add in drinking enough water. I just don't. I hate having to go to the bathroom in the middle of a three hour band rehearsal. Or waking up in the middle of the night. And, well, water is pretty boring. But I'm making myself this week to earn my smiley faces.
P.S. Each smiley face is worth a dollar toward whatever splurge I want, or in hubby's case, whatever he wants. I am saving up for a pair of Vibram Fivefingers. That means almost three months of good diet, exercise, and water. And that way, if I want to "cheat" a day, or two, or three... (oops)... then I can, and I can still earn my Fivefingers. The incentive seems to also work for my husband. Win, win!
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Well, we finally had a snow day here at UNT. It took them until noon to close the campus, and we suspect it's only because yesterday evening the President suddenly and unexpectedly announced her retirement, which would become official at the Regents meeting that happened this morning. My boss, the assistant director of programming at the Union, suspects they kept campus open solely so they could hold the meeting. Whatevs. I didn't have class anyway.
The sad thing is that we were supposed to host Michael Ian Black tonight. You might know him as the voice of VH1's "I Love the 70's/80's/90's" series. At least we knew enough to cancel before he got on his flight from LaGuardia, so now we're looking at rescheduling his visit. That makes me a bit sad, but I plan on taking full advantage of the snow day: I already ate too many of my chocolate chip cookies (although they do surprisingly little damage to a diet!), I will play video games, and I will probably play in the snow that is miraculously accumulating outside my apartment. Fun stuff!
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